Sonder
by Multikirby-Chaos7
Summary: "ˈsɒnˌdɜr - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own." This story focuses on the side and background characters from my other fanfiction, No Pokeballs Allowed. It tells their stories.
1. arc4 FOREST (1)

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 **Hey, guys, and welcome to Sonder! In case you didn't read the story description, Sonder is a collection of stories based on the side and background characters from No Pokéballs Allowed. As far as I know, no, there will not be an equivalent story for Canon Fodder or Window to the Past. This is because most of the characters in Canon Fodder are...well...canon, and I feel like I can't do much else with the people from Window to the Past.**

 **No Pokéballs Allowed, however...oh, boy. You guys are in for a treat.**

 **note:AUTHOR_START concluded**

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Shari yawned and sat up in her bed. She was never really that good at waking up. So she didn't. Her eyes closed again and she began to drift off to sleep.

She was suddenly ripped awake from her slumber by a sharp knocking at her door. "What do you want?!"

"It's breakfast, Shari," the relaxed voice of her brother drawled. "Get upstairs, we're waiting for you."

Shari growled. "Why do you guys always wait for me? It's stupid..."

"It's _family time._ You know what mom says," Ben sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

"...Yeah, yeah," Shari sighed. "Well, I'll be up in a minute."

Neither of them moved.

"...Go...away..." Shari seethed.

Ben smirked. "If I leave, you're going to go back to sleep."

"I will not."

"Will too."

"Go away!"

"Fine. I'll be back in five minutes."

He closed the door, and Shari heard fading footsteps...

"Go away, Ben! I know you're faking it!"

Ben chuckled. "It was worth a try," he said amusedly as he walked away.

Shari stayed in her bed and stared at the ceiling before letting out a loud groan. "Why do mornings exist?! Nobody likes you!"

A few minutes later, Shari had gotten the motivation to roll out of bed. She was sprawled out on her floor, trying to build up more motivation so she could actually sit up.

 _Alright, Shari. I'm going to count from ten. When I say 'zero', you'd better be sitting up._

Ten seconds later, she was still on the floor, in the exact same position.

 _This isn't working._

Suddenly footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.

 _Crap, it's Ben!_

Sitting bolt upright, she raced to get dressed, scrabbling across her bedroom floor in a desperate search for some sort of clothing she could put on before Ben reached her-

"Shari? It's been five minutes!"

"Go away, I'm not ready yet!"

"But I gave you five minutes, Shari," Ben said in a mocking tone.

"And I need five _more_ so go _away!_ " Shari demanded, throwing a pillow at the door.

Ben sighed. "I'm staying out here until you open that door."

"You aren't my _dad!_ "

He chuckled. "But I am your older brother, and you've got to respect my authority."

"What authority?! Go away!"

"No."

"Go away right now!"

"Shari, I'm not going away until you go away with me."

Shari grumbled in response, and began to get dressed. "Fiiiine..."

"Are you wearing clean clothes?" Ben sang.

"It's none of your business!"

"Oh, but I think it-"

Ben was interrupted when Shari yanked the door open. He had been leaning on the door, so the sudden lack of support caused him to fall to the ground.

Shari flipped her messy chestnut hair back, staring down at him with her hands on her hips. "C'mon, Ben, let's have breakfast," she said with a smirk as she began to walk up the stairs.

Ben pushed himself up to his knees and combed his own chestnut hair down. It was disheveled now; he'd have to restyle it in the bathroom after breakfast. He grunted in annoyance and used the doorframe to get to his feet before following after Shari.

She was already sitting at the table with their parents. She smirked at Ben before taking a bite of her waffle. "You're late."

"Eat that with cutlery," Ben said, screwing his face up. "You'll get your hands all sticky."

Shari grinned, her teeth dirtied with waffle. "I'm not using syrup, doy."

Ben's disgust grew. "...Why not? Who eats their waffles without toppings? That's disgusting."

"Shari, please," Karen shut her eyes, putting her hands up to block the view of her daughter. "Not all of us want to see the step-by-step process of mastication."

"Why not? It's a fascinating process!" Shari laughed after gulping down a mouthful.

Ben sat down at the table. "...Why do you get three waffles? I only have two."

"Then grab one, Ben," Kent called from the TV room. "There's a plate on the table."

Ben sighed and grabbed another two waffles from the plate. He was hoping it'd create a little more fuss than that, but not every situation could be a winner.

"So are we going to go to school today?" Shari asked, looking at her mom.

She shook her head. "No, it's still cancelled. Government's all freaked out about the virus."

"Right," Ben said. "I hope we don't have any homework. That'd put a damper on this break."

"Ben..." Kent said in a low voice.

He looked at his father with a small smile. "Sorry."

Shari finished off her waffle and ran to the phone. "I'm going to go to the mall today, alright?"

"Can't. It's quarantined," Kent said, gesturing to the TV.

Shari's jaw dropped. "Really? Why?"

"It _is_ in the next city over," Ben said. "But they aren't infected yet."

"It's a precautionary measure, honey," said Karen, looking at Shari.

Shari sighed. "Man, that sucks...what am I going to do today?"

"You could help me," Ben suggested. "I'm going to be doing some reading, and I'd appreciate another pair of eyes."

"Yeah? Well...it's not like there's anything else to do," Shari said. "What are we reading up on?"

"Advertising," Ben said. "It's exciting stuff; you get to be really creative."

"Like the Japanese?" Shari grinned.

"...Actually, that's pretty interesting," Ben said as he got up from his table. He walked over to Shari and tapped her shoulder before walking to his room. "The Japanese, apparently, distrust advertisements that tell you about their product directly. So they craft advertisements meant to show customers how they _feel_ when..."

Karen looked at her son and daughter as they went to his room. She smiled a bit and gathered the dishes, plopping them in the soap-filled sink. "Hey, can you handle dishes today?"

"But I'm covering the news," Kent said, rolling his head off the arm of of the couch. "We need to know about advancements of the virus, right?"

Karen rolled her eyes. " _I'll_ take your shift for the ten minutes it takes to wash the dishes," she said as she walked into the television room and flopped onto the opposite couch.

Kent sighed and got up from the sofa. "Alright, fine."

* * *

"Aaaaand...action."

"So...thirsty...need...water..." Ben gasped as he dragged himself across the ground of his room.

"Cut."

"What?" Ben got up. "What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing. Let's do it again," Shari said, getting into position for the pan.

"What? Why?"

Shari looked over her pokéPad at Ben. "Rule number...eh, seventy four of making videos: you can never have too many takes."

"...Alright," Ben said. "So do you want me to do anything different this time?"

"No. That was perfect. Do it again."

Ben sighed and got back into position. Shari held a whiteboard in front of her pokéPad's camera. "Ben's Bazaar Advertisement. Scene one, shot one, take three."

"So...thirsty...I need...water..." Ben gasped as he dragged himself-

Shari frowned. "Cut! Stick to the script! Do it again."

Ben frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You're parched! You don't have the energy to say frivolous words like 'I'!"

He got up. "Why are we making an advertisement again?"

"One, it's fun. Two, we've got to implement the stuff we just read about, right? And what better way than actually shooting an advertisement?"

"...Reading more about it?"

Shari chuckled and shook her head. "There's no better way to learn something than going out and _doing_ it, Ben."

"...Fine, let's do another take," Ben said as he got down on the ground. "So thirsty need water, right?"

"Right," Shari confirmed, before raising the pokéPad. "Ben's Bazaar Advertisement. Scene one, shot one, take four."

"So...thirsty...need...water..." Ben gasped as he dragged himself across the ground of-

"...Kids...Kids, come down here," Karen's voice called from the television room.

"We're shooting something, mom!" Shari yelled back. "We'll be a minute!"

"No...no, I need you down here now."

Shari put down her pokéPad and looked at Ben worriedly.

"...Alright, mom, we'll be right down," Ben replied.

Ben grabbed Shari's hand and got to his feet before walking out of the room. He was still holding Shari's hand as they walked down the hallway to the television room. The news was blaring.

"All local households are to enter emergency lockdown," the local newscaster urged. "Stay in your homes. Do not socialize. Report all infected individuals; do not try to hide them. Message repeats: local area to enter complete quarantine to protect from the virus. Virus is lethal and should be avoided at all costs. All local households are to..."

Ben staggered backwards as he felt his hand squeezed by his sister.

"...Ben...?"

He slowly shook his head as the breathing in his ears grew distant.

"Message repeats: local area to enter complete quarantine to protect from the virus..."

arc_4 FOREST completion [progress 10%]  
loading arc_4 FOREST (2)  
MESSAGE: arc_7 MARKET unlocked!  
MESSAGE: bonus_1 BIRTHDAY unlocked!

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 **If you'll notice, there's those MESSAGE things up there. You'll see that there are two options: arc_7 MARKET and bonus_1 BIRTHDAY. You may be wondering what this means. Well, I'll tell you.**

 **The next chapter will not be about arc_4.**

 **You guys can vote for either arc_7 MARKET, or the patent-pending BONUS CHAPTER. Here's how it works.**

 **Review the chapter. It has to be more than just 'great chapter write more'. It has to be a real review. You can vote on which arc or BONUS CHAPTER you want to see next. You can vote for any incomplete arc or unviewed BONUS CHAPTER you want to see next chapter. You cannot vote to see the same arc twice in a row. So for instance, the next chapter cannot be about arc_4 FOREST, no matter how many of you vote for it.**

 **Just so you know, when you see the message 'arc_# ABCDEF unlocked!' that means the arc had something to do with whatever happened in the chapter. So if the chapter is about John and Jane going to a museum, and 'arc_A CURATOR unlocked!' is at the bottom of the page, you can bet the arc has something to do with the museum.**

 **Got it? Good! Now, go review!**

 **P.S.: Thank you to the MacMillans for giving me the layout of the Graff's house!**

 **note:AUTHOR_END concluded**


	2. arc7 MARKET (1)

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"Um...hello, is this Banette's Bazaar?"

Shuppet looked down over the counter. "Yes, it is! What can I help you with?"

A Shroomish looked up at her, a tape recorder at his side. "Hi, um...I'm Marvin, and...um, I'm reporting. I wondered if I could ask you a few questions."

"Huh? Reporting?" Shuppet blinked. "Well, I don't see why not. It's kind of a slow day here. What do you want to know?"

"Well, um...could you start with your name and role?" he asked as he clicked the record button.

"Okay, gotcha. My name's Shuppet. I work the till and keep stock at Banette's Bazaar."

"Could you say your full name, please?" Marvin asked quietly. "It's...um...for the paper."

She laughed a bit uncomfortably. "'Shuppet' _is_ my full name."

"It is...?" he echoed. "But..."

"Banette and I used...we used to be Pokémon belonging to trainers. They didn't bother nicknaming us.

"Oh...I see," Marvin said, scuffing his feet awkwardly.

"Don't worry, it...was a long time ago," Shuppet said quietly. "I'm over it."

"A-alright, um...so how long have you been here in Nuzlocke?"

Shuppet laughed again. "Oh, man, we've been here so long I lost count. Kind of tends to happen when you're immortal. But if I had to guess, I'd say around thirty or forty years."

"And what does your store deal in?"

"Anything and everything," Shuppet said. "We're a general store – or I think that's the term. So we generally deal in everything. Though we specialize in bits and bobs found in mystery dungeons."

"Really?" Marvin asked. "Mystery dungeons are so dangerous...! So you're saying that if someone needs something, they could just come here?"

"Yeah, that's the idea," Shuppet said with a grin. "I can't tell you where he goes, but he collects nearly everything on our shelves himself."

"...Shuppet, who are you talking to?" a male voice came from within the store.

Shuppet turned around. "A reporter!"

"A _what?!_ "

Rapid footsteps sped their way to the front of the store. Understandably, Marvin became very nervous – usually when someone speeds towards you after adopting a tone like that, it's a sign that something bad involving you and that person is going to happen.

A Banette dashed out of the store, looking around before locking eyes with a very afraid Marvin.

Panting, he raised a finger to tell him to wait. Finally, he caught his breath and spoke. "...Who are you reporting for?"

 _Busted._

"Um...j-just myself, sir," he stuttered, taking a glance at his tape recorder. It was still running. "I-I, uh...want to start a newspaper, and I th-thought interviewing one of th-the most reliable s-stores in Nuzlocke wo-would be good for th-the first issue."

The Banette's harried expression immediately softened. "...Oh. Why didn't you tell me he wasn't a real reporter, Shuppet?"

"I didn't know!" she protested.

"I _am_ a real reporter!" Marvin insisted. "I have a tape recorder and everything and I'm going to write an article about Banette's Bazaar!"

Banette chuckled a bit. "Alright. Would you like to ask me a few questions? I am the manager, after all," he said, shooting a sly glance to Shuppet.

Marvin was now a little annoyed. He got the feeling he was being patronized by Banette. Well...Marvin would show him! He'd write an article so good it'll start his heart again!

"Yeah, sure," Marvin said, new determination in his voice. "Let's do it."

Banette smiled. "Alright, if you'll follow me, then..."

Marvin froze, then looked back at his tape recorder. How was he going to bring it...?

He yelped a bit when Banette suddenly stood beside him, seemingly having materialized out of nowhere. "Having trouble?" he asked.

"...I...don't have hands," Marvin said, embarrassed. "And I need my mouth to...talk."

Banette simply bent down and picked up the tape recorder. "There! Problem solved. Now, shall we?"

"Uh...y-yeah," Marvin stuttered, now caught off guard. He wasn't sure why, but he was thrown off his element. Now he wasn't sure what to expect anymore.

He trotted after Banette as he walked past the counter into the store. As he looked around, Marvin became astonished as to how many products lined the shelves. He wasn't even sure how far back they went for...

"U-um...can you say your name and role for the opening line, please?"

"My name is Banette, and I am the manager and supplier for Banette's Bazaar," he said, speaking into the tape recorder.

"I heard from Shuppet that you specialize in items found from dungeons. Is that true?"

"Well, we don't specialize in anything, per se," Banette said, choosing his words carefully. "We deal in a bit of everything, really. Though, yes. I do go into mystery dungeons to supply the store with many of the goods you see here."

"Wow...that's...a lot of effort you put into this store..."

"Well, it is my livelihood," Ben said with a nod. "I take pride in my work and my customers. Though I admit I've had my fair share of close calls in the work, it's worth it to provide premium products for my consumers."

Marvin nodded. "I see. So you risk your life for your customers...? That's...amazing!"

Banette grinned. "I'm glad you think so. Honestly when I was growing up I never thought I'd be doing this. But life is a strange journey...and so is death, I suppose."

"Well...thank you for your time," Marvin said. "I think I've gotten all I need for an article."

"I'd like to see it once you're finished!" Banette said, leading him out of the store.

He nodded and took the tape recorder in his mouth, pushing 'stop'. He nodded at the two as he walked away.

Marvin wasn't an idiot. He knew Banette didn't think he could do it. But he would. He'd do it. And he wouldn't need help from anyone.

Marvin knew he could do it.

 _click_

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	3. arc4 FOREST (2)

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Lunch was quiet that day. Nobody really said much at the table. The news about the virus spreading had hit the family like a truck, and the energy that had been present at breakfast had all but disappeared completely. Karen had gone and locked the doors. They couldn't have visitors now.

"Hey, mom," Ben asked. "How are we going to get food if we can't leave our house?"

Karen looked up from her soup at Ben. "They'll deliver a catalogue, and we phone in our order to the grocer. They deliver it to us."

Ben was silent for a moment, then frowned. "What about the grocers? Aren't they in dan-"

"I don't have all the answers, okay, Ben?!" Karen yelled, holding her head.

The table went dead silent. Karen stared down at her soup as it grew cold. Finally, she sighed and brought the palm of her hand to her face.

"I'm sorry, Ben. That was uncalled for. I'm...going to go to bed for a while." She got up and walked to the master bedroom, leaving her soup on the table.

Shari shrank down in her seat, pushing her soup away. "I'm not hungry."

"We don't want to waste this," Kent reminded. "Food isn't going to come along as often as long as we're quarantined.

"Is this even the way we're supposed to be quarantined?" Shari sighed. "It's a stupid system."

Kent was silent for a moment. "We're all scared, Shari. We know about as much as you two do. We'll just have to bear with it."

The table was silent for a few more moments as Ben finished off his soup. He asked to be excused, and began washing the dishes.

Shari turned to Kent. "So...do you know if there's a cure, or what?"

"They're looking for one, I'm sure," Kent sighed. "There has to be one. It's just a matter of finding it in time."

Shari nodded and finished up. Kent had been done for a while, and handed his bowl to Shari as she passed. She in turn handed it to Ben. Ben made a face, which Shari promptly ignored. She flopped down on the couch in front of the TV.

Kent got up and grabbed his coat. "I'm going out for a bit, alright?"

"But we're quarantined," Ben said. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Not if you wear one of these things..." Kent held up a biohazard suit. "Before you ask, these ones are second-grade, so I can't go out as often as officials can. I'm just getting the emergency kit from town hall. I should be back in a little bit."

"Okay, bye," Shari said, waving from the couch. Her attention went back to the TV as she studied the news. "...This looks pretty grim," she sighed.

"Well, what do you expect?" Ben asked, scrubbing the soup pot. "People are calling this the end of the world."

"Pfft. Drama queens," Shari waved her palm. But she wasn't so sure. Even the experts looked mighty nervous about this whole thing. Maybe there was more to this...

Kent hadn't come back an hour later. Shari was wringing her hands on the couch, trying to distract herself with television. But somehow the plucky little girl with her Skitty didn't seem so amusing to Shari anymore.

"Where did Dad even get that suit...?" Ben murmured, on the opposite couch. "They don't exactly sell them at the corner store..."

"M-maybe he's just being held up at the cash register," Shari blurted out. "Or he got called into a meeting."

Surprised, Ben rolled his head to look over at Shari. "...What?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, looking away.

Ben lay flat in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Small green glow-in-the-dark stars were stuck against it, gently shining down on him. He'd had them put up when he was around four, and never really bothered to remove them. He knew they were childish, but they were sort of endearing at the same time.

He rolled over and looked out the window. The streets were completely deserted. Even in this suburban neighborhood, it was common to at least see someone out on the porch, or a house light on. But the entire street seemed dead.

Poor choice of words.

He sat up at a knock at the door. "Who is it?"

"...Shari. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure," he said. The door opened and his sister walked in. She sat down on the bed near him.

"...So what's your take on all this?" Shari asked, wringing her hands in her lap.

Ben laid back down on his bed. "I really want to believe that this is another media scare. Remember when they used to think Pokérus was a bad thing?"

"Yeah," Shari said with a small giggle. "All these activists were screaming about how Pokérus-infected Pokémon were radioactive."

"And it was actually _helpful,_ " Ben finished.

Shari smiled softly, feeling a bit better. "Maybe that's what this'll be like," she said quietly. "Maybe everything will be alright."

Ben suddenly frowned. "I don't know about that, Shari. A lot of people have died already."

"...I guess I already kinda knew that," Shari whispered. "But...the TV said they were searching for a cure. Maybe they'll find it."

" _Re_ searching," Ben corrected. "You know what that is, right?"

"Of course I know what researching is!" Shari said, lightly punching Ben.

Hi chuckled. "Well, you said searching, so..."

"Still, it got me thinking..." Shari said, looking up at the stars. "Maybe _I_ could find the cure."

"...What?"

"Well, it's gotta be out there, right?" Shari looked at him. "Somewhere. And I could go find it!"

Ben sat up. "Okay, you're seriously misunderstanding the word 'search' in 'research'. It's not actually a physical search. It's a bunch of boring lab stuff."

"Still, there's...gotta be something, right...?"

"You talk as if you're actually going to go out on an epic quest and find it."

"..."

"Oh, Shari, you can't be serious!"

"I don't want to just sit here on my butt and wait for us to drop like flies, Ben! I want to actually do something to help!"

"Going out there and dropping like a fly isn't going to help!"

"Maybe it will if I find a cure!"

"You WON'T find a cure! I guarantee you won't!"

"And why shouldn't I?!"

"Because it doesn't EXIST yet!"

Shari was silent for a long time. Then she looked away, and got up from Ben's bed. "...Good night, Ben," she said icily, before slowly making her way out of the room.

 _I'll show him,_ Shari thought angrily as she slid open the window to her room. She looked outside and breathed in the air, before sitting down on the sill, her bindle draped over her shoulder. _I'll find the cure._

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	4. arc7 MARKET (2)

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The streets of Nuzlocke seemed busier than usual. It still wasn't comparable to the crowd of a scramble crossing in a city like Cape Coast. There was no danger of being trampled. But the dull roar of ambient conversation served as a somewhat distracting white noise. Everyone talking seemed unnaturally animated in their discussions, whether they be about weather, international relations, family, or sport. Every so often a piercing exclamation or a high-pitched laugh would break through the overall drone of conversation, but just as quickly it would fade back into the rhythm the patrons of the Nuzlocke had already established.

The vendors definitely had their hands full. None of them really knew what brought this crowd on, but many saw the horde paving the street with gold, figuratively speaking. Some figured they were tourists – others simply assumed that everyone in town decided to do their shopping on the same day. The holidays were approaching, after all, and Descention was coming soon. Gifts for loved ones – and Arceus, of course – were a must for that, and nobody would be caught dead empty-handed on Descention. Otherwise they would be caught dead empty-handed on Descention.

Whatever the reason, the streets were packed. And this only served to frustrate someone as vertically challenged as Marvin. He had no problems seeing. But what he was seeing and what he wanted to see were two things that were differing in a rather annoying way. Namely, Marvin's view was taken up almost entirely by legs. This was annoying for a multitude of reasons, the most prominent of which being the fact that Marvin was constantly getting pushed around, which meant he wasn't able to get where he wanted to go.

But it wasn't like he had much of a location in mind to begin with. He'd already accomplished a goal today: get to the Nuzlocke market. He wasn't sure why he wanted to get a story on the market – he didn't really want to limit himself to just writing about stores. He was a reporter, and a reporter would snap up any story that would interest the public eye, whether it was about a vendor or not! But Marvan figured that he had gotten a rather satisfactory interview out of Banette when they had talked earlier, and so he decided that he'd try the market again. He was definitely not going to make a practice out of writing about stores, but it couldn't hurt to write about one more, right? If he could actually get to one.

Marvin couldn't even speak to berate the Pokémon pushing him around. He was clutching his tape recorder for all he was worth. This precious possession of his replaced the notebook one of his profession would usually require to take notes. This was apparently a human gadget, which repelled some Pokémon, but to someone without dextrous appendages like Marvin, it had proven invaluable for recalling information from an interview, and he would not trade it for anything else in the world.

...Except maybe dextrous appendages.

Eventually a path cleared in the crowd, and Marvin took the chance, dashing out from the terrifying grip of the horde. He took a gasp of fresh clean air that didn't smell like sweaty dirt. Marvin looked back at the crowd with a scowl. He'd been stormed when some vendor had announced a sale: up to and including seventy per cent off on select purchases. Marvin wasn't one for jewelry, which was what he had been selling, but apparently literally everyone else in the square was. Marvin counted himself lucky that he wasn't dead. He looked around for some place to rest from the harrowing ordeal, and upon finding a suitable bench, plopped himself down upon it and put down the tape recorder to truly get his first few clean unobstructed breaths.

Leaning back against the plank of the bench, Marvin took this opportunity to watch the crowd of shoppers. As a kid, he and his friend Monty had always taken to doing this whenever their parents dragged them along to the marketplace of their hometown. Even before gaining his passion for reporting, Marvin had always enjoyed just observing other people. He and Monty often gave the passerby impromptu random backstories.

"Oh, goodness, is that the time?" Marvin mumbled, watching a Golett looking at the sun with a panicked expression. "The rhubarb-rawst pie'll burn! What will the Grimdark Society of Horrorterrors think of me if I bring a burnt pie?!"

His gaze drifted to a Mienshao eyeing some glassware while the vendor, a Machop, scowled at her indecisiveness. "Hmm...one of these just _has_ to contain a genie...or maybe more than one, but I only have twenty Poké...oh, how I wish I'd just bought one more lottery ticket. It would have won for certain!"

Taking a deep breath, Marvin closed his eyes and leaned back on the bench. What was he going to write about? The huge bustle that was in the square today? Yeah, sure, he could probably squeeze out five sentences or so from that. That's definitely not up to his standards for an article. Perhaps he could use it as an introductory paragraph to the actual article? That could work. But then, what would he write about? Descention? That was not an interesting subject – everybody already knew what it was about, and if he were to write so much as a single negative word about Arceus, he'd have a very special guest for dinner that night.

Maybe he could just write about another vendor. Then again, all these vendors were so busy. It frustrated Marvin to no end. He was just about to go back home, when he heard someone call his name. Looking up, he saw a Servine headed for him, waving.

"Marvin! How are we today, old friend?" Monty asked as he sat down on the bench beside him. "Out scoping for a story, I see?"

"Yeah, well, things aren't going too well," Marvin sighed, nodding towards the crowd. "The sheer shopper wall is making things hard. Not only is walking through that a death wish for someone like me, but they've got all the vendors completely booked. If I went up to them asking for a story without offering about one thousand Poké in compensation I'd be flogged."

"Hrrm...that is a problem," Monty conceded, nodding solemnly. "Well, have you considered writing about something other than a market vendor?"

"And what could I write about?" Marvin asked, looking up at Monty. "This square is basically the only interesting thing in this dumb town."

Monty frowned. "I don't think it's dumb," he said. "It's...er, rustic, yes. But everyone here is friendly and amicable, and I find myself having many an entertaining conversation with everyone here!"

"Well, friendly and amicable doesn't make for good press," Marvin grumbled. "Honestly, I haven't seen a single crime here. It's ridiculous."

"Hmm...why didn't you move to Unity City, then?" Monty asked. "It's much larger, and much more...uncouth. Or perhaps Cape Coast?"

"For one, Unity City's on the western continent, and I'm not going anywhere near there. That place is apocalypse now for all intents and purposes."

"Oh, I'm sure it isn't all that bad!" Monty protested. "I've heard rumours that Unity City is rising back up."

"Yeah. With zombies, or something," Marvin scoffed. "Besides, even if everything were peachy there, I still wouldn't go. The housing is much too expensive. I don't really have any sort of income right now, and I'm still able to afford a semi-functional apartment here. You really think that I'd be able to pull that off in a city like Unity or Cape Coast?"

"Oh, I suppose not," Monty said carefully. "Well...perhaps you just won't be able to write a story today?"

Marvin shook his head. "I HAVE to, though."

"Why?" Monty asked. "It isn't a necessity to live, is it?"

"No, but I promised myself I would," he said. "Look at this place. It's packed. There has to be a story here, and if I can't find it, what kind of reporter am I?"

Monty crossed his arms. "Just because there are around a hundred Pokémon here, it doesn't mean that there is necessarily a story to be had. Sometimes there's just nothing to write about! It's a fact that not every day is monumental in some way!"

"No, it's the exact opposite! Every day is monumental for SOMEONE for some reason or other. And that means that somewhere, there is a story for me to write about!"

"But is it here, though?" Monty asked, turning to face his friend. "You might have to travel a long way to find someone who finds this day monumental. And even then, you might find their value may not carry to the papers."

Marvin looked up at him, then sighed. "...Maybe you're right...but still, I don't want to give up. I just have a _feeling_ , you know? A hunch. And when you're a reporter, you've got to trust these hunches. I know about them. Reporters' hunches are never wrong."

Monty rolled his eyes. "If I'm to be honest with you, Marvin, it sounds as if you're setting standards for yourself you simply can't meet. You can't possibly write one story a day and expect it to be of a premium quality both to you and your readers. That's simply unrealistic."

"But...I know there's something here! I can just _feel_ it!" Marvin stressed. He looked out at the crowd, his eyes scanning the horde for anything that caught his attention. "Reporters' hunches are never wrong!"

Marvin felt a hand upon his head, and looked up. "Perhaps this isn't a reporters' hunch, then?" Monty said, before getting up from the bench. "You may be right, Marvin. There may be a story here after all. But for my sake, at least, don't tear yourself up about it! A watched pot never boils, as the humans always used to say."

Marvin frowned for a moment. "Maybe I could write about the humans. Like a historical."

"It's been done," Monty said, "but perhaps you could bring something new to the table?"

"...No, I don't think I could," Marvin said. "I'd want to make mine unique, but I don't think it would stand out enough to bother. Plus it's old news."

"Well, in any case, I hope you find your story, Marvin," Monty said. "And again, don't fray your nerves about the issue. When a story comes up, you'll know. Reporters' hunch, you know!" he winked, before turning on his heel and walking back to the crowd.

Marvin was left alone on the bench with his tape recorder and his thoughts. Perhaps Monty was right. Perhaps there was nothing to be written about...

No. He refused to believe that. There was a story here. He just needed to find it. He just needed to focus.

With a deep breath, and a deeper sigh, Marvin slipped off the bench with his recorder and walked back into the crowd of shoppers.

arc_7 MARKET completion [progress 20%  
loading arc_7 MARKET (2)...  
MESSAGE: arc_3 GROWTH unlocked!

/help arcs

Available arcs:  
arc_3 GROWTH (1)  
arc_4 FOREST (3)  
arc_7 MARKET (3) [loading...]


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